Handed a blowout loss, Raptors still have a ways to go to become contender

SALT LAKE CITY — It’s art, not science, this team building thing. 

The Toronto Raptors are seven games into their own new experiment, having played just one at home followed by six on the road with a new-look lineup featuring Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett. 

There are all the indications of more changes coming, with the Feb. 8^th NBA trade deadline less than a month away. With the Raptors having travelled through Sacramento and Golden State, playing against teams that have been linked to the Raptors in trade talks, and then having spent three days in Los Angeles, where NBA rumours go to be amplified, it’s no wonder that there’s a feeling that ‘something is happening’ in the air. 

But as of Friday? Siakam remained a Raptor. He was in the lineup against the Jazz after missing one game with back spasms.

Should something happen? Well, there’s a lot of factors there, but if the measure is how the Raptors competed against the Utah Jazz on the final game of a 10-day road trip, maybe the sooner the better. Or it could just be the Raptors were leg weary, having played their third game in four nights and fourth in sixth and are struggling without Jakob Poeltl, their starting centre, as they ran into a Utah club that is rolling right now. 

Maybe all of the above. 

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Regardless, the Jazz handed it to the Raptors early and often on their way to a 145-113 win that was decided early in the fourth quarter, the best indication being that Raptors rookie Gradey Dick, back with the team after a conditioning assignment and time with Raptors 905, saw his first NBA action since December 27^th and his most minutes (12, he was 0-of-3) since playing nine minutes back on Nov. 24^th. 

It was that kind of night. 

With Poeltl — the Raptors only legitimate big man — healing up from an ankle injury, the Raptors struggled with Utah’s size. The Jazz spent long stretches of the game with two seven-footers on the floor, a rotating combination of Walker Kessler, Lauri Markkanen and Kelly Olynyk and it seemed to be a problem. Through the three quarters that mattered — all of which the Raptors trailed —  Toronto was shooting a scintillating 16-of-24 from three but just 10-of-36 from inside the arc, which is how you trail by 20 even while shooting 67 per cent from three. The Raptors had just 16 points in the paint to Utah’s 36 and 22 rebounds to Utah’s 41. Meanwhile the Jazz were able to complement their inside advantage with some pretty impressive shooting of their own as they were 17 of 35 from deep before garbage time kicked in. Whether it was Jazz rookie Keyonte George flying down the lane untouched for a dunk or Markkanen stepping into a long line of lightly contested threes, the Raptors didn’t have it defensively. 

“We did not have that energy. We have to learn how to close the road trips, how to play those games away from home,” said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. “It comes down to mental toughness and discipline, you know? Not settling for some of the shots they were — literally — giving us and [instead] taking what we want, getting to the rim much more and finding open people. I thought our offence really slowed us down in the first half and it carried on to our [defence] the whole game. “

Siakam led Toronto with 27 points and was 5-of-6 from deep but there were few other standouts. The Raptors shot 43 per cent from the floor and finished 17-of-34 from beyond the arc. Utah had six players in double figures, led by Markkanen who had 22 points on 11 shots in 29 minutes. The Jazz shot 56 per cent from the floor and 21-of-45 from three, beating Toronto for the second time in three weeks and improving to 20-20 on the year with their fourth straight win. The Raptors fell to 15-14 and have lost three straight, finishing their six-game road trip with a 2-4 mark. 

The Raptors are heading home but have a tough slate ahead of them with dates against Boston, Miami to start the week. It was their first ‘stinker’ since the trade and dropped their record since making the move to 3-4, which isn’t bad considering they played six out of seven on the road. Unfortunately they have another six-game road trip coming up to start February. 

“For us we have to continue to learn and fight through adversity,” said Barrett, who finished with four points on 2-of-9 shooting. “[but] I played like garbage today, so I’ll take that one on the chin.”

The Jazz are an interesting comparison for the Raptors, as an organization. Like Toronto — although for different reasons — the Jazz aren’t a team that can rely on free-agency for team building but have nevertheless been a mostly successful franchise for decades. 

Two seasons ago the two teams were in a roughly similar situation. After a long run of playoff success that never ended with the kind of Finals breakthrough they were hoping, the Jazz won 49 games and lost in the first round in 2021-22. 

Utah — under the eye of incoming president Danny Ainge — decided to break it up. Ainge figured that then-Jazz centre Rudy Gobert was making too much money on a max deal, decided they need out from his contract and found a willing buyer in the Minnesota Timberwolves. Trading Donovan Mitchell was a tougher choice, but he’d indicated that he didn’t intend to stay in Salt Lake long term, so the Jazz opted to trade him sooner than later and moved him to Cleveland. Ainge and the Jazz were left with a number of rotation-quality players, a budding star in Markkanen and nearly as many future draft picks and swaps as the former Boston Celtics great has fingers. As rebuilding goes, it was lighting quick, relatively painless and may not be finished as Utah still has a number of tradeable players they could put into market before the trade deadline. Canadian national team star Kelly Olynyk is a pending free agent and has plenty of interest; Jordan Clarkson and Colin Sexton are other players who could help teams trying to win now. 

And then the big fish: all-star forward Lauri Markkanen – the prize return in the Mitchell trade to the Cleveland – could tip the balance among the top teams in either conference (imagine his length and sharpshooting in Oklahoma City for a moment) and would command a significant return as a result. 

There are plenty of decisions to make, but even better? 

The Jazz are operating from a position of strength, having gone 12-4 in their previous 16 games and coming off three consecutive wins double-digit wins over Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Denver, title contenders all. 

Are the Raptors anywhere near as good? They’re good at some things. Since the trade the Raptors are fourth in offence as they have scored 124 points per 100 possessions. They’ve needed them as they are just 27^th in defence, allowing 122/100 possessions, but overall their net rating is +2. Before the trade their net rating was -1.1, so progress. 

The net rating will take a beating — as will their defensive numbers — after the smashing the Jazz put on them so safe to say, even with the trade balancing their roster better and providing some a nice combination of depth, youth and skill, the Raptors still have a ways to go. 

The obvious next shoe to drop is a deal for Siakam and – without going through all the permutations and possibilities – the return will be fascinating. 

What if the Raptors had looked at their 48-win team two seasons ago, the one that got bounced in the first round and made the same decision the Jazz did, namely: recognize that their days of being a contender were in the rear-view and it was time to retool.

At the very least it will be interesting to see if not dismantling Fred VanVleet-OG Anunoby-Pascal Siakam core sooner will cost them. That the Raptors were able get Quickley and Barrett for Anunoby is encouraging, that VanVleet left for nothing, essentially, is less so. Obviously what happens with Siakam will generate a lot of swing votes. 

Meanwhile the deconstructed, still-in-progress Jazz proved too deep and talented for the Raptors who fell to 0-3 since centre Jakob Poeltl sprained his ankle against the Golden State Warriors. 

The Jazz enjoyed 6-1 edge on the offensive glass in the first half, which was just one reason they were able to open up a 64-47 lead heading into half time. The Raptors were aggressive from the start with Scotty Barnes (19 points) and Quickley (15 points) each looking for offence early. Quickley’s first touch was a logo three and he had 10 points in eight first quarter minutes, while Barnes added six points on five shots. But Barrett — shooting a red-hot 59.5 per cent from the floor and 53.4 per cent from deep since the trade — finally hit a cold patch and ended up scoreless in the first half on seven shots. Nothing wrong with the shots, they just didn’t fall. Meanwhile Siakam was having a hard time getting his offence to flow. He shot just four times in the first half and had seven points. 

The Raptors trailed 28-24 at the end of the first quarter and fell behind in the second as the Jazz bench used a 13-3 run to midway through the second quarter to open up a double-digit lead that they took into halftime. 

Rajakovic tried to shake things up to start the third quarter. Thad Young, who had started the previous two games at centre since Poeltl’s injury, was benched in favour of Jontay Porter, the two-way signee who has been showing some promise recently. He also started Gary Trent Jr. over Barrett. 

The early returns weren’t all that compelling as the Jazz wasted little time in pushing what was 17-point lead at half to a 24-point advantage after the opening 3:25 of the third quarter as a pair of threes from Simone Fontecchio and one each from Markkanen and Colin Sexton put the Raptors back on their heels. 

The Raptors stayed on their heels for the rest of night. How long it will take them to get on their front foot will be telling. The Jazz chose one path a couple of seasons ago and the Raptors another. So far, it looks like Utah got it right.

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